Adventures in Cuzco

12-angled stone in Cuzco.  The Incas were known for their
incredible masonry. These stones formed a all without
any need for mortar.

Machu Picchu has always been a dream of mine.  I remember watching a special about the lost Inca city on the Discovery or History or one of those information channels when I was around 18, and thinking "I HAVE to go there!"  I was very struck by everyone's accounts of the mystique and energy abound in this sacred Inca site.  I wanted to experience it for myself!!  Of course it wouldn't have sufficed to simply take a bus or train to the mountain city.  That would be have been too easy… I wanted to trek there.  So my friend Casey and I found an agency to take us on the Salkantay Trail, one of the alternative routes that leads to Machu Picchu.  The Inca Trail, the most popular means of trekking to Machu Picchu, would have been a challenging, but gorgeous option, with village settlements and various ruin sites to see along the way.  The only problem is that everyone wants to take the Inca Trail this time of year and so 6-week advanced booking is required and you're bound to walk the trail with like hundreds of other people at the same time.  Therefore, Casey and I decided to go with Salkantay.

At the entrance to Pukapukara - an Inca fortress just outside of Cuzco.

Beautiful street in Cuzco.

After two very relaxing and pleasant days in Cusco, spent acclimating to the elevation (3,299 m), shopping, visiting local ruins, and exploring the cobblestone streets and old buildings of the city, which was once the capital of the Inca Empire old Inca, we were off on our trek.  We booked through an agency called Xtreme Tourbulencia, and were introduced to our guide, Edwin, and the 6 other girls that would join us on the trek (3 from Holland and 3 from Spain).  Edwin was a very soft-spoken, stoic man with over 10 years of experience in everything from trekking, guiding and mountain climbing to working in national reserves throughout Peru.  We also met our chef and assistant chef, Palemon and Yon, and the mule shepherd and his 12-year-old son, Fernando and Yacfreth.  All of the staff on our trek spoke both Quechua and Spanish, and Edwin's English was also very good.  

We were told to carry a day pack with essentials and layers for the changing temperatures, while our chefs and shepherds would lead the mules carrying our actual packs and our food.  They were also doing the trek, but were always arriving before us to prepare our camp and our food.  I was reminded of my experiences climbing Mt. Meru in Tanzania, where we were always outdone by the impressive porters that carried their clients' bags up the mountain, cooked their food, and ate separately from them.  Our mules looked well-fed and healthy, and I felt less guilty about the idea of my stuff being carried by mules than by people.  But I wanted the opportunity to get to know our contracted counterparts a little better.  The trail was so intense and the schedule so rushed that I didn't really get this opportunity in the 3 days that we were with our chefs and shepherds (I didn't even get a picture of them).

View on Day 1 of our hike.

Day 1 was a northbound approach to the Salkantay pass, trekking up some steep hills and walking along a water channel.  I could feel the temperature dropping as we approached the snowy mountain peaks in the distance.  Edwin chose appropriate times for taking breaks, took the opportunity to tell us a great deal about the different plants that we were seeing along the trail.  Our trek started that day in Casamarco, which is named for a plant that grows in the area, Marco; the plant is fed to guinea pigs, and somehow in the digestion process, the plant helps to rid them of the fleas and parasites that dwell in their hides, keeping them healthy for eating (I forgot to get a picture).  At around 5pm, after about 7 hours of hiking, we arrived at our camp for the night, which was right at the base of the Salkantay pass.   I looked at the looming mountains covered in snow, and felt a little bit of anxiety about what was waiting for us the next day.  The sun wasn't even down yet and I was already really cold.  Luckily Casey had an extra jacket for me to borrow.   

Mules carrying packs for trekkers.

And even more wonderful was the dinner that Palemon and Yon had prepared for us.  We ate like royalty during the entire trek.  Soups, appetizers, and entrees with many different side options; and all food that was perfect for trekking…full of protein, but not too heavy or difficult to digest.  The dining set up was also very impressive.  At times I felt a little uncomfortable with how nice everything was.  I would have been happy to eat rice and meat on the floor with the people who were cooking for us and carrying our things.  But I guess that's just not the way it's done when you purchase a trek tour.

Day 2: you can imagine.
I think we were only 30% done with our hike
when I took this picture, and I was already wiped out.

Day 2 was one of the most intense and challenging days of my life.  We awoke at 5am that morning, ate breakfast and set off.  Two of the Spanish girls were having some problems, probably feeling the effects of altitude sickness (and maybe a little exhaustion from lack of physical activity).  I remember just feeling really anxious.  It was already raining (thank goodness I remembered my rain poncho), and the temperature kept dropping the further we walked; eventually it started snowing, and it continued for the next several hours.  I was wearing every layer I had packed, and my day pack was pretty burdensome containing my very heavy camera, snacks, and liquids.   I couldn't feel my toes or fingertips for a good three hours, but luckily I was wearing some pretty decent hiking boots that kept my feet completely dry as we trekked through creeks and muddy trails.  Also, Casey and I were sharing walking sticks, and it was my turn to use them that day…. those things saved my life.  I made very slow progress up the pass, but I did it.  When we reached the highest peak (called Abra Salkantay) at 4600m, I was physically spent, but really happy.  I had a dramatic breakdown on the way up and cried to Casey that I didn't think I was going to make it.  She patted me on the head and encouraged me to keep going. 

The Dutch girls, Casey and me at the Abra Salkantay peak (4600m)
after about 3 hours of hiking through snow and rain.

Same girls and me at the end of our 10 hours of hiking on Day 2.
The Spanish girls weren't far behind.
You can barely see the snowy mountain we had
just hiked around.  Notice the jungle behind us.

We had to descend to make our way out of the pass, and after lunch the snow was gone and we found ourselves amidst Andean jungle.  The extreme terrain changes were unbelievable.  I think we must have hiked for 10 hours that day and who knows how many kilometers we covered.  It was incredible.  That night Casey and I looked at the stars with little Yacfreth, using the Star Gazer app on my phone to figure out which constellations we were looking at.  Apparently Scorpio is very visible in the Southern Hemisphere this time of year.

View from Day 3 hike.  The Santa Teresa river is
flowing through the hills, you can barely see it.

Day 3 was a (relatively) short 4-hour hike along the Santa Teresa River, which is essentially water from the melting glaciers that we had just hiked around.  I couldn't believe how fertile and gorgeous these lands were.  I couldn't remember the last time I was surrounded by such natural beauty.  It was exhilarating and rejuvenating for me to be in this environment, after spending the last year in cities.  This was also the day we got to enjoy the Santa Teresa hot springs.  They had three different pools full of happy tourists and locals, each pool had a different temperature, with the hottest probably at about 40 degrees Celsius.   Being in the water was like being in a womb, my muscles ached so much and my body was so tired; and the cold air was like ice when I lifted a limb out of the water.  That night all the different trekking groups gathered around a bonfire in the camp site and danced to the salsa and electronic music that a DJ was playing somewhere, blasting on really loud speakers.  We'd just said goodbye to our chefs and shepherds who would not be joining us for the last two days of the trek; we pooled together some tips to show our appreciation and Edwin initiated the formal despedida ceremony.

Breakfast on our last morning with our chefs.

I tried to speak Spanish with Edwin as often as possible and I asked him a lot of questions about the landscape and the people in the area.  He knew most of the other guides on the trail and they often spoke Quechua with each other.  He also knew bits of Italian and Portuguese.  He'd grown up in the mountains of Cusco and loved his heritage and his people.  He also had a good sense of humor and a great deal of patience with those of us who might have complained or delayed every once in a while.  At one point on Day 2, Edwin put a couple girls on mules because they were having such a hard time.  He brought up the back and tried not to let anyone fall behind him.  

Stream that joins with the Urubamba River.
On the way to Aguas Calientes on Day 4

Day 4 was the most lax part of the trek.  We hiked along the train tracks that ran from the Hydroelectric station all the way to Aguas Calientes (a small town at the base of Machu Picchu where most tourists stop over before heading up to see the ruins).  We spent the night in the little town and were up at 5am the next morning to catch a bus by 6:30am up the mountain to Machu Picchu.  The number of tourists was really overwhelming for me.  Lines for everything: for the bus, for the bathroom, for the entrance, for food.  When we entered the site, Edwin gave us a very long introduction to the Inca civilization and the construction of Machu Picchu, but I was distracted by the loud tourists calling to each other across the ruins.  Things settled after a while, and Edwin gave us a very informed tour of the city and all of its interesting aspects.  We saw their irrigation mechanisms, temples, living quarters, and places of worship and star-gazing.  

Yes, I took this picture.  Check out the Facebook album
for more pictures of the trek and Machu Picchu

According to historians, Machu Picchu was built on lands that were considered very sacred to the Incas.  Ritual offerings and many other artifacts were found in different parts of the city by Hiram Bingham, the man who "discovered" Machu Picchu in 1911 (and whom on the Indiana Jones character is based).  Also specific parts of the city were constructed in accordance with astronomical alignments and often served as predictors of significant astronomical events, like the equinoxes (which were important for the agricultural practices of the Inca people).   The Spaniards never found Machu Picchu during their conquest of Perú, and therefore the city was not destroyed or plundered as was the case in other parts of the country.  Somehow Machu Picchu was kept a secret from European invaders for over 300 years.  Even now, this UNESCO world heritage site and the famous Inca Trail leading to it are threatened by the tourist  traffic that comes through every year.

View on top of Huayna Picchu.

Casey and I also enjoyed an incredibly intense hike up Huayna Picchu (the big mountain you always see behind Machu Picchu in all the guidebook pictures), where we saw amazing views of the surrounding landscape and of the city itself.  I think that was probably my favorite part of the day.  Only 400 people are permitted to climb Huayna Picchu each day and therefore Casey and I were able to separate ourselves from the hoards of tourists and meditate a little bit on the gorgeous vistas.  I was tired and spent from 5 days of obscene amounts of hiking (I think we covered 50km on foot), but I was relaxed and comfortable on the mountain, finally able to enjoy the fruit of all my efforts and proud for having brought myself here with my own two feet (well for the most part).

Yay!!  Casey and me at the end of our 5-day adventure!

The next morning, I was back in Lima, ready to plan my next trip (to Arequipa) and finish up the research project I started 2 months before.  I'm starting to fall really behind on my posts, but hopefully I can have another one up with details on the project in the next week or so!

Think I'll pass on the pork from now on...

mosquito dissecting!!

So, when I last left off, I was exploring the fascinating activities behind outbreak investigations of infectious diseases.  There are many possible sources for a disease outbreak, and they come in different forms, therefore, it is critical to cover many bases during the investigation.  We learned that this a multi-faceted undertaking that requires collaboration among experts in different fields.  Everyone from doctors to zoologists to social scientists to lab technicians and more.  This course allowed us to meander down all these different avenues.

bait and Shannon trap

We went from larvae collecting and mosquito trapping in the first week, to rodent/bat trapping and animal necropsies in our second week.  After a nice day at the beach where I finally worked on my tan under the equatorial sun (much more efficient), we returned to the lab to make rat bait and label our traps.  At around 6pm, our group set up 36 traps in a dry rice field, each with a small ball of bait inside (consisting of peanut butter, oatmeal, raisins, and a lot of vanilla extract) and placed about 5 meters apart; the coordinates of each trap were taken using a GPS device.  At 5am the next morning, we returned to the field and found that at least 30% of those traps contained rodents.  It was pretty interesting to pick up the light, metal trap (wearing gloves of course) very cautiously and see if the trap door was shut or not.  Sometimes the door was shut but there was no animal inside (the sign of a poor trapping device), and sometimes, the smell of excrement indicated the presence of an animal before you even checked the door.

Thy setting up our traps..

these getups were extremely uncomfortable and hot!!

Later, we dissected and sampled some of the those mice, wearing Tyvek getups complete with rubber boots, battery-operated air pumps, air masks, and two layers of latex gloves.   That day, I received the most hands-on anatomy lesson of my life from the fine zoologists at NAMRU-6 who had flown in from Lima to contribute to the course.  If you've never heard of NAMRU, it's definitely worth looking up.  It was a bit of an ethical dilemma (not to mention emotional upheaval) for me to take the life of a cute little mouse and then desecrate its body the way I did, but I did it and have accepted my decision.  I wanted a field epidemiology experience and I certainly got it.

aawwww little insectivore!!

We also learned how to trap bats, using a very fine net that looks like natted women's hair (according to some of our colleagues) and is very easy to tangle.  It's best to put the nets up just before dusk and check them every 30 minutes to an hour for trapped bats.  We set up three nets and caught two bats: an insectivore and an herbivore.  I'd never seen bats that close up before.

heading out to see the mangroves!!

mangrove trees!

Another perk: we went bird watching in the national mangrove reserve in Tumbes!!  I had never seen mangroves before and certainly never really understood what it takes to catch flocks of birds in their natural habitats!  Too bad I didn't take my telephoto lens with me that day.  I would have been able to capture photographs of some of the beautiful birds that are native to the reserve, specifically the blue herring and the cool flamingoes that live there.  Either way, the mangroves were very impressive and it was fun to walk through the marshy terrain to get to the birds, where we hunted for fresh bird droppings that would be tested for influenza and other diseases in the event of an outbreak.


WARNING: GRAPHIC IMAGES AHEAD!!!

pig being euthanized.

Finally, came the necropsy of a pig heavily infected with Cysticercosis, a tissue infection that results from exposure to eggs from taenia, or tapeworm.  In Tumbes, Cysticercosis is endemic among pigs and humans, causing epilepsy and other complications in the latter.  If humans consume poorly cooked meat that belonged to a pig infected with the disease, they ingest the developed eggs (cysticerci - almost like larvae) contained within the meat, which grow into adult tapeworm.  Tapeworm in our small intestine is relatively benign compared with actual Cysticercosis in humans.  However the eggs that the tapeworm lays within the human digestive system are excreted in human feces and will reinfect the agent via the fecal-oral route, causing Cysticercosis.  Here is where the huge problem develops.  Cysticercosis seems to cause little-to-no physical symptoms in pigs, but can be extremely burdensome for humans.   The ingested eggs will penetrate the intestinal wall and circulate to the muscles (causing inflammation and calcification) and brain (causing seizures).

cysts on pig's heart

Pigs and humans become infected with Cysticercosis by consuming human feces that contains tapeworm eggs.  If either pigs or humans are consuming contaminated feces, it is the result of poor hygiene or poor maintenance of livestock, both of which are associated with poverty and lack of education or instruction.  Often times, a pig's worth is determined by whether or not it is infected with Cysticercosis (you can tell by pulling out its tongue and looking for cysts).  Often, people will knowingly sell contaminated meat in order to survive and feed their families.  Would you throw away the meat of your infected 200 lb pig if it meant putting food on the table for your family?  And what would you do if you didn't have enough money to buy wood to build a fence to keep your livestock separate from humans and their excrement?  The Cysticercosis center that hosted us in Tumbes is doing an operational research project in the area where they go out to the field to collect human feces samples and offer treatment with diagnosis, as well as test all pigs for the disease in order to keep humans from consuming contaminated meat.  If a pig is infected, the center will attempt to purchase the pig from the farmer or household for above market value (considering it is diseased), in order to keep the pig from being sold to unsuspecting clients.

infected pig meat

if you look really closely, you can see the cysts on the pig's brain

So we dissected this pig to determine just how much cysticerci were growing in its body.  First the pig was euthanized, and then its throat was slit.  The corpse was drained and skinned and then all organs are removed.  The meat was then cut into enough pieces for each of us to extract 30 healthy cysticerci for testing.  It was a pretty disgusting process and I actually haven't touched pork since that day.  I'm pretty grossed out by the animal to be honest.

But yea.. that was our field epidemiology course in Tumbes (in a nutshell).  I'm really grateful for the entire experience, most of which was subsidized by the same program that allowed me to spend the last 3 months in Perú.  I met some awesome students in the course and have also been adopted by a few employees at NAMRU whose brains I've been picking for advice and guidance as I try to find my own niche in the world of research and health interventions.

Next post: Cusco, Salkantay Trek, and my long anticipated visit to Machu Picchu - the highlight of my time in Perú.  Hopefully it won't take me a month to get this post up!!!